DANCING TREES is the open air, dance theater performance by the DAH Theatre, which deals with the importance of preserving trees and performed regulary in the Student Park, Belgrade. Realized in cooperation with the Dance Institute in Belgrade, it includes 6 performers, video works, composed music and aims to sensitize the audience and encourage initiatives in defense against excessive tree felling.
Initially inspired by a book by Peter Wolleban – a German forestry engineer who devoted himself to the observation and research of trees, the play uses data on the importance of trees and conveys the world of trees that have their own life – imbued with memory, communication and breathing that releases oxygen, necessary for human society.
Trees not only provide us with oxygen, they are also important for our spiritual and physical health. In which ways awareness of that importance can be raised? Our show is also one of the ways one can choose. Our project aims to sensitize the audience and encourage urban initiatives in defence against excessive tree felling . By using creative ways, the show wants to inspire (invigorate) resistance and to motivate citizens to connect and network, be proactive in the defence of trees and forests.
Predstva is part of a wider project that is also a case study in the online course Teaching Artistry for Social Impact on one of the world’s largest platforms for creative learning, kadenze.com – available to everyone and free of charge.
DRVEĆE PLEŠE was awarded by the program FIXING THE FUTURE of Austrian Radio Ö1/ORF 2021 and presented at the Innovation Festival “Market of the Future” in Graz, from 1. -3, Ocober, 2021.
“Trees are Earth’s endless effort to speak to the listening heaven.” Rabindranath Tagore
The performance and project Dancing Trees is the inspiration for the European cooperation project – TREES, which aims to transfer to the European level methods of raising environmental awareness through the use of theater and art. DAH Theater is the coordinator of a project supported by the European Union, which includes partners from Greece, the Netherlands, Ireland, Spain, Germany and Norway.
SPECTATORS IMPRESSIONS
The show is magical, I really felt some special connection with these wonderful people who performed in the show, and I started to look at the trees in a completely different way after the show. It was extraordinary.
I didn’t know there was a tree that is 9000 years old. That I learn. I actually knew we were destroying them a lot, and I kept lying to myself that we weren’t destroying them that much.
Definitely, there is no activism without art.
This is a fantastic wake up call.
Artistic initiatives are great for ecology, it is important to send a message that works primarily on an emotional level.
Art is a great tool in general to address many other problems as well. Perhaps the most direct way.
The eyes are the most important for perception, that is the first- you see something. I think that a larger number of people are visually orientated, it is much more impressive than having the text in your hands and thus informing yourself. Just compare it with tonight’s text that talks about how trees were cut down, how painful it is, how old the trees are, why they cut them down. When you also hear the music that accompanies the actions and lifts us, when you see the dance, and all these combined into one fantastic interaction with the audience, I am fascinated. Imagine someone who comes by chance and doesn’t think much about nature, and just happens to be in a place like this in the middle of Belgrade, of course that person will completely change the state of mind.
It’s important to give this topic a platform where it can be talked about. Art can bring the problem closer to its citizens. Science has a less effective way, because it talk in codes, and it is hard to understand it.
Yes, I think that this is the right way to reach a lot of people. If just could happen more often. It is easier to reach me personally with this story, than with some other. You simply touched me emotionally with words and actions and I literally experienced what you were telling me, lived through it.
Direction and dramaturgy: Jadranka Anđelić and Dijana Milošević
Performers: Vladimir Čubrilo, Đurđija Jelenković/ Katarina Bućić, Ivana Milenović, Popović,
Texts / Sources: Diana Beresford Kruger “In the Name of Trees”; Peter Volleben “The Secret Life of Trees”; Hermann Hesse “On Trees”; Manoel Pena “Tree Street”; Afonso Romano de Sant Ana “Forest Love”; Miona Petrović “A Message to the Trees”; and other sources
Music: Ivana Stefanović
Electronics: Dragan Mitrić
Voices: Ivana Milenović Popović, Ivan Nikolić, Neša Paripović, Miona Petrović, Milan Popović, Vid Popović, Andrija Vasiljević, Zoran Vasiljević
Vocal: Ljubica Damčević
Sound Design: Zoran Jerković
Video, Mapping: Jelena Rubil
Costume: Ivana Samolov, Ferenc Varga
Object doll: Snežana Arnautović
Light design: Milomir Dimitrijević, Radovan Samolov
Producers: Nataša Novaković, Milica Petrović
Dierectors Assistants: Ana Bošković i Rumena Šopova
Technical Production: Milomir Dimitrijević, Radovan Samolov
Tehnichal support: Muzej savremene umetnosti Beograd
Sound recording, Tehnichal assistance: Zoran Vasiljević
Translation from portuguese: Jovan Tatić i Jadranka Anđelić
PR: Tanja Rapp
Social networks: Aleksandra Atanacković, Meri Zec
Finances: Dragana Živanović
Photo: Djordje Tomić, Nata Korenovskaia
Graphic Design: škart
In collaboration with BELGRADE DANCE INSTITUTE. [IUI]
Thanks to Museum of Contemporary Arts Belgrade, UK Parobrod and Ivana Abramović.
Special thanks to composer Ivana Stefanovic.
Supported by
ITAC – Climate Impact; Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs; International Relief Fund of the German Federal Foreign Office, the Goethe Institute, and other partners: http://www.goethe.de/relieffund; City of Belgrade – Secretary for Culture.
Further perfroming suported by
